Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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625. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the proposals to provide a substantial increase in the non-national road network grant allocation to Monaghan County Council for 2016; if he is aware of the concerns expressed by councillors at Monaghan County Council and at Carrickmacross and Castleblayney municipal district in relation to the urgent need to upgrade substantial parts of the road network; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42975/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The improvement and maintenance of its regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of Monaghan County Council, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from the Council's own resources supplemented by State road grants.  The selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is, therefore, a matter for the Council.

Ireland has just under 100,000 kilometres of road in its network and the maintenance and improvement of national, regional and local roads places a substantial financial burden on local authorities and on the Exchequer.  Because of the national financial position, there have been very large reductions in Exchequer funding available for roads over the past number of years. Funding in 2008 was €2.3 billion while funding this year is around €760 million for the national, regional and local road network.  The reality is that funding will continue to be tight for the next number of years.

Local authorities are aware that it is a matter for each Council to determine its priorities and to allocate funding accordingly.  Given funding constraints, my objective has to be to allocate funding to local authorities on as equitable basis as possible.  The main grant categories are, therefore, based on road lengths in each local authority's area of responsibility. 

The RLR allocations for next year have yet to be decided but I expect to announce the details early next year. It is important to reiterate that State grants are intended to supplement local authorities' own resources.  In this context, I am emphasising to Councils that the commitment of local authorities to contribute significantly from their own resources, towards the cost of improving and maintaining the regional and local roads, network is essential.